


Fixed

by charlotteicewolf77



Series: Stranded 'verse [11]
Category: Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: Boeshane Peninsula, Cereal, Children of Earth, Death, Drama, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Epilogue, Family, Food, Hurt/Comfort, Long, Love, M/M, Nightmare, Prologue, Romance, Sequel, Stranded, Talking, Tea, Whump, beach, chapter, coco pops, coe fix it, eleventh doctor - Freeform, fixed, frosties, nightmare stone, offworld, penultimate story, river song - Freeform, safehouse, second favourite story, sorelki, stranded 'verse, trademarked, upset Jack, wwp (whump with plot)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-13
Updated: 2013-02-27
Packaged: 2017-11-29 04:16:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 9,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/682667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charlotteicewolf77/pseuds/charlotteicewolf77
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack comes back from travelling with the Doctor and goes and re awakens Gray from the freezer and takes him back to live in the Boeshane Peninsula 10 years after the invasion. Will everyone get their happy ending or is the entire family doomed to misery and heart break? Coe fix-it story. Sequel to stranded.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I dont own doctor who or torchwood or any other trademarked items mentioned

Jack looked down at the piece of paper in his hand then up again at the sea. Torchwood 3's hub hadn't been rebuilt yet. The only consolation was that the cryo freeze chambers had not been damaged and those that had been occupied had been moved to a secure location. The address of which was written down on the piece of paper that he held. His plan was to find Gray, and send him back to the 51st century, ten years after the invasion. It had seemed painfully simple back on the TARDIS before he had left; now he wasn't so sure. The immortal man carried on looking out at the sea until some body else came and stood next to him. He didn't even need to look to know who it was.

"Doctor."

"Captain."

They stood there in silence. Until,

"You really do need to leave don't you?"

"I have to put things right, or try at least."

"I know. And that's why I thought you might need this."

The sound of the sonic screw driver broke through the silence and was followed by a beep from Jack's vortex manipulator as the time travelling circuitry whirred back in to life.

"Fixed, should last you for a couple of thousand years now."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. Now I have to go, places to go, people to meet. You know the story."

"Yeah, I know. Good bye Doctor."

"Good bye Jack."

Then he stood alone and listened as the last of the time lords walked away.


	2. chapter one

Jack cast a furtive glance a round him as he picked the lock on the door that would let him in to the hospital basement, shivering as the heavy metal door slammed shut ominously be hind him. Dark under ground spaces still made him want to throw him self at the walls and yell until he was hoarse and cause major havoc until he was as far a way as possible. Pushing the memories to the back of his mind as he so often did, the immortal blue eyed brunette searched a round the walls until he had found the light switch. The florescent strips flickered un certainly for a moment until they eventually shone a dim orange yellow colour; casting eerie shadows every where. After a moment to get his bearings, he headed towards where the cryo chambers where stored, his foot steps echoing loudly in the deserted place.

Am I doing the right thing? Jack wondered what if he stays the same? I would have to put him back in there. Or kill him. The thought scared him but he deliberately didn't change the subject. May be death really was the best thing for his brother now, what happened if in a hundred, a thousand years time no body was able to remember why he had been frozen in the first place? Then that would be another load of death on his al ready size able conscience, he knew what it was like to live with the memories of torture and he honestly would kill him self to get rid of the memories if it would actually be permanent. But he couldn't just kill the guy, he was his little brother! But you al ready killed your grand son, a snide little voice in his head pointed out, so what would make this time so different? Jack decided that now was definitely a good time to think a bout some thing else and shook his head to clear it of the painful memories that were re surfacing.

He care fully keyed in the necessary codes and instructions and effortlessly by passed the security system when it refused to accept his thumb print as he was, apparently, 'long deceased'. He almost cracked a smile at that. Almost. He stepped back as the ancient machinery hissed and stuttered and hurriedly cloaked him self in the black shadows and watched silently as his (much) younger sibling a woke and quickly extracted him self from the chamber once he had realised just what it was.

"Be careful." Jack announced his presence and stepped for ward as Gray stumbled clumsily over a dilapidated stool. "Your body's systems are going to take a while to start functioning normally a gain."

"What the fuck are you doing here?" the younger brunette snarled up at him angrily.

"Oh that's a nice way to say hi to your brother isn't it?"

"What the fuck am I doing here?!" Gray demanded.

"Well I was going to offer you the chance to go home but if you're going to be such a mekrittu then I'll just freeze you all over a gain." Jack spat out the insult, using his native language out loud for the first time in centuries.

"What do you mean home?!" his brother repeated. In return he nodded down towards his vortex manipulator.

"This thing is working a gain, I planned on taking you back to the Boeshane ten years after the invasion. But if you don't want to then you can just fuck off out my sight because I really can not be bothered if you try and kill every one on earth; haven't been for a long time now."

Gray stayed quiet and thought. He wanted to just go over to his big brother and hug him tight and beg for his forgiveness but he found that his feet were un willing to obey- as if they had been stuck in to the concrete floor. It wasn't his fault, a tiny voice sounded in side his head, it wasn't any body's fault you were kid napped and yet here he is still blaming him self for it over two millennia after the event. How many other people could say that their brother had been that loyal to them? Not many. You don't hate him; you never hated him, not really. Even if he did lose you on purpose then he was a thirteen year old boy whose home had just been invaded by monsters and life is all a bout survival. He promised that he would look after you and he couldn't just go back in time and stop it all from happening- you know that no body is allowed to cross their own time line.

And what's more Jack was hurting, he could see it in his eyes, a pain that had nothing to do with the deaths of Tosh and Owen which led Gray to wonder who else had died.

Ianto.

So obviously Ianto, the witty, handsome welsh man that had captured his elder sibling's heart in a way that no body else had. The sarcastic, gorgeous eye candy that had attracted the attentions of John Hart and that actually wasn't as easy as it sounded. "Ianto's dead isn't he?" no point in sugar coating it he decided as he gauged for a reaction. For a moment he honestly thought that Jack was going to cry until the shutters came down and his face be came devoid of all emotion.

"Yes." This time Gray felt tears welling up in his eyes.

"I'm sorry Blue." He whispered, if the immortal man was surprised at the mention of his child hood nick name then he didn't let it show.

"What for?" he asked, "Ianto dying or for killing two of my team?"

"Both."

"I know."

"And for burying you a live and for getting a bout your promise and being a crap brother and making John help me and placing bombs all a round Cardiff…" he trailed off as the tears really began to flow and Jack pulled him in to a hug, knowing what he was really sorry for.

"You're not a crap brother, don't you ever think that." He soothed gently, "I should never have broken my promise in the first place."

FLASH BACK

He woke up to the sounds of his baby brother crying and padded softly out of his bed and across the room to where Gray's bed was and sat cross legged next to the boy's head and shook his shoulder to alert him of his presence.

"Why are you crying?" he asked Gray.

"Bad dream." The younger snuffled miserably. "Lots of monsters came and Dad told you to run and keep me safe and you did and we were running fast but I couldn't run fast enough and you let go of my hand and the monsters got me."

"Well that was obviously not true then weren't it? I'm here, you're here, the only monsters are when Mum and Dad get angry and shout at us for trying to make snow and they aren't monsters really because they're Mum and Dad."

"I guess." Gray agreed as he tried to follow his brother's quicksilver logic. "Thank you Blue." He told his elder brother, using the name that everybody on the peninsula told the young brunette in reference to his sapphire blue eyes. Only their parents had ever called him by his real name once when they told them off for trying to make snow.

"Hey it's what big brothers are meant to do right?" Blue asked him cheerfully, "And even if some monsters did come and Dad told me to keep you safe I'd make sure I'd never ever let go of your hand I swear on Mr Smokey." He nodded towards where his favourite teddy bear sat lopsidedly on his pillow. "And if the monsters did take you then I would join the time agency and learn to travel in time so I could get you back."

Just then they heard their Mum calling for them to come down for breakfast and they happily ran down the stairs, the nightmare all but forgotten.

So when the monsters did come and take Gray 7 years later Blue did join the time agency and although he couldn't just go back to that day and save his brother he never stopped looking for him.

And even when however many years later Gray killed Tosh he knew he didn't truly hate his brother because he remembered the promise the person that used to be Blue had made to him and he knew he would have honoured it if he could of, because his brother had never let him down.

END OF FLASH BACK

"You didn't break your promise." Gray whimpered, "You had two years of your memories as time agent wiped."

"How do you know?"

"John told me. You found out where I was and you were going got come and get me but the day before you were going to go they wiped your memory and couldn't remember any thing a bout it."

Jack pulled back slightly so that he could look his little brother in the eye. "I think you should tell me every thing you know from the beginning." He said seriously. Gray nodded and began his tale.

FLASH BACK

Gray sat on the floor next to his bed in John's apartment that was 'not small but cosy', flicking slowly through the con man's diary. Though why it was in an old fashioned note book was a mystery- he didn't quite believe it was because the elder man was 'attached to the past' and decided it was more likely because you could burn paper easier than a data pad. Either way once you had deciphered the al most illegible scrawl the old book actually made for some good reading.

MONDAY 22ND APRIL 5123= blimey, Boe aint half obsessed with the past! I looked through his drawer for some socks (couldn't be arsed to bung mine in the wash) and all I found in all of his drawers was a bout six or seven note books and data pads with stuff a bout Gray on. 'Part from one paper thing (I think they used to call them envelopes?) with an old photo of his family stuffed in. Gray looked a bit like Boe but shorter and masses of curly hair and their dad looked like an older version of both of them put together. His mum was sort of the sweet al ways baking or gardening mummy person. (She was a right bit of eye candy) with blonde brown hair that reached al most to her waist and green eyes.

WEDNESDAY 24TH APRIL= some thing weird's happening and I'm, pretty sure that it's the Agency's doing. For starters Boe didn't wake up until seven this morning and I'm usually not up until eight so that rouses suspicions. Then when I finally wake him up from a night mare (never got why he has so many, if I lost my little brother I wouldn't have given a flying fuck in space) he just puked and went back to sleep. Then he woke up an hour after- and I still hadn't finished cleaning up- he couldn't remember the past two years of his life. Wanted to know why the hell I was there because he thought we were still fighting over some thing. He said he felt sick a gain though I pulled him in to the bath room this time; vomit is much easier to clean off tiles.

FRIDAY 26TH APRIL= Boe's gone. He's left the agency al together, he left a note saying that he had to get out of here while he could and I should do the same and that he was going to search for Gray. Bloody idiot, he's al ready found him. He was meant to go get him yester day but he couldn't remember. He could be hundreds of years in the past affecting what I'm doing right now, he could be shagging my grand mother for all I know. I want him back. I'll go get Gray then we can be happy a gain, though I'll have to translate his note books from Boeminian first. Stupid cunt never makes it easy does he?

Gray fingered the dog eared picture stuck on to the page, he still felt angry.

END OF FLASH BACK

Gray looked on silently as his brother stared vacantly in to space as he tried to process what he had just been told. When he was still doing exactly the same thing five minuites later he started to wonder if he was OK. "Blue?" he tentatively broke the heavy silence. Jack looked a cross at him surprised; like he had for gotten he was even there. "Are we going home now?" he asked. some how he wasn't surprised when the immortal shook his head.

"Not to night. Tomorrow, some loose ends that I gotta tie up first." Gray nodded.

"Where are we going to sleep to night?"

"One of torchwood's safe houses."

"I thought that all houses were safe?" he replied in bewilderment as he tried to make sense of the comment. Jack shot him a look before remembering that for one they didn't have a word for' safe houses' in Boeminian and for two, despite John's brief (and probably sex oriented) up date of the universe, his brother's know ledge in certain areas were severely lacking.

"Safe house just means a house that spies or similar people can go to if they think they're in danger. I figured a house in the middle of no where is the last place they'll look if they discover that you're missing."

"They wouldn't think to look three thousand years in the future either." He pointed out with a smirk. Jack gave him a smile that for the first time reached his eyes before holding out his vortex manipulator and they disappeared from the basement in a flash of light.


	3. chapter 2

"The bed room's up stairs." Jack called after him as he closed the door. "I'll be up in a minuite."

"OK." Gray replied, padding softly a cross the old wood and in to the bed room. Two beds were in side, one next to the window and the other nearer to the door; both with thick blue duvets and fluffy white pillows. The younger sibling opted for the one be sides the window and settled him self down, gazing up at the inky square of blackness. He didn't want to sleep. It wasn't the night mares that he struggled with, just the fact that when ever he closed his eyes thoughts and images would come wondering in and leave him paralysed with fear.

At some point he realised that Jack had come in and was sitting cross legged a top the duvet of the second bed, staring at him with an un read able look on his face. Then he suddenly chucked some thing a cross to Gray who caught it, he pulled a loop of string taunt and watched in fascination as a circle shaped stone with a hole in the middle dangled on the end; he recognised it as a Parfror, loosely translated in to ' night mare stone' from Belavian. He looked up at his brother, "Thank you." He whispered, incredibly reluctant to break the silence pressing down on them. Jack just shrugged and turned a way, curling his legs up as he buried his face deep in to his pillow. It made him look like a child, lost and far a way from home; Gray pulled the string over his head and sat looking at the immortal's back, completely help less as to what he should do next. "Do you have night mares?" he asked eventually, indecisive as to whether he actually wanted a response or not.

"I'm immortal, I don't need to sleep." Jack replied with another shrug.

"You have to sleep some time? The younger countered with a small frown, "Or at least you slept be fore you turned immortal."

"I don't want to talk a bout it."

"OK, good night Blue."

"Night."

TW

The next time Gray woke up it took him a while to work out precisely why he had been pulled so abruptly out of dream land. Then he heard the sound of the toilet flushing an the taps running and he was fairly sure that there was a sob in amongst all of that too and it was a battle of wills if he should get up and see what was happening or stay put and give Jack some space.

In the end he found him self peering out of the door down the landing and eventually forcing him self to venture out further when no sound was further emitted but a dull thud. He gazed in through the crack in the door as best as he could in the dim light and searched out his brother and found him sitting on the cold hard lino under neath the sink with a far a way look on his face. He was just a bout to turn right back a round and head back down the squeaky landing to wards the bed room when Jack suddenly called out to him. "Gray? What's wrong?" so the younger crossed the freezing cold lino and curled up next to his brother who put a comforting arm a round him and pulled him closer for some extra warmth.

"I woke up and saw that you weren't there so I came looking." Gray explained, "I could ask you the same thing."

"Needed the bath room." The ex con man shrugged, "Told you that I didn't need to sleep."

"Not even after you've died?" he asked.

"Not even then. Which is quite good be cause if I have to sleep then I would have had so much paper work back at Torchwood I wouldn't even have been able to get out the door." He was trying to smile and make it all in to a joke; even he could see that, in spite of what little contact he had had with other people as an adult. May be he ought to change the subject. Thank fully, Jack did it for him. "You used to have a right mop of curly hair you did." He commented softly.

"John cut it once when I was a sleep be cause he said that it made me look like a hobo. What is a hobo?"

"It's…." the immortal paused as he tried to remember the word for hobo in their native language, "It's a Morlube." It had been so long since he had spoken in that language! The last time had been when he was with the Doctor that still wore the leather jacket and wanted to learn more a bout his new companion over 2100 years a go. Gray blinked in surprise.

"But that's what Yalae used to call me." He said, referring to the elder boy at school who had bullied every one that he saw.

"Yeah, he called all of the people who lived near the beach Morlubes."

"'til you and Ellie threw sand in his eyes, then you were the exception and got called mekrittu."

"Yeah." The pair sat in silence for a while until,

"Was Ianto special then?" if the immortal was surprised at his younger brother's out of the blue question then he most certainly didn't let it show on his face.

"Yeah, he sure was some thing al right."

"Why?" jack pondered his answer, trying to put his feelings in to words was an activity that he had never particularly excelled at.

"Not a clue." He told Gray eventually and the younger man nodded in under standing.

"Did you love him?"

"Yeah, I did, but…" he trailed off, a blank look coming in to his eyes as he remembered what had happened in Thames House.

"What happened?"

And Jack told him, he told him all a bout the welsh man who had stalked Jack until he had gotten a job and how he had captured a dinosaur with a bar of chocolate and how he had loved his girl friend so much that he would have risked the entire world to save her and he explained a bout the Master and the year that never was and what had happened on board the Valiant and how absolutely brilliantly Ianto had looked after him when the night mares invaded every time he closed his eyes and carried on loving him in spite of the fact that Jack had lost their child and how the young man had sat up with him all night after the incident with the creature in the ware house made him so incredibly sick because it reminded him of the Valiant. He even explained about th and Alice and Thames House and all that he could say in reply to 'I love you' was 'don't'. and the two brothers carried on just sitting there and talking until the first rays of the sun began appearing to drive a way the night and Jack had reached the point where he looked as though the slightest thing would make him burst in to tears.

A silence hung over them like the Black Death, neither sibling wanting very much to be the first to break it. Gray gave a soft yawn and slumped further down Jack's side, rubbing drowsily at his eyes in a futile attempt to keep them open. "Time for bed." The immortal ex con man said with a smirk and picked him up in his arms as though he was a child a gain but he was too tired to argue.

"Aww, so you're not going to read me a bed time story then?" he giggled. Surprisingly, Jack sat down on the bed next to him and pulled his head in to his lap.

"Don't want you going cranky on me." He teased as a way of explanation. Gray mumbled some thing that sounded like a protest but snuggled down any way and so the tale begun.


	4. chapter 3

Long a go, be fore even time existed and when all there was nothing except for the stars, the earth and the golden trails from which came from the spirits of magic, it was said that there was four holy animals that had come together a long time a go and those four holy animals soon put a bout combining their skills and talents in to creating the first human. The four holy animals were: a wolf, a whale, a falcon and a snake. They each a greed to make one part of the human each and all of them gave it characteristics that they saw as beneficial.

The wily serpent created two legs and feet as the bottom most part and said; "Man shall be strong and agile, he shall be able to run and a void those which would do it harm. He shall be able to travel and explore and broaden its horizons."

Then the falcon made its torso and pro claimed, "The blood of man shall run through his veins as fast as the fiercest of the winds that haunt the Bad Plains and its heart shall beat like that of a drum."

Next, the whale formed two arms, "Man shall climb and swim and play and cart wheel. He shall be able to make every thing and any thing that he sees in his dreams."

Lastly came the wolf and he fashioned a head and placed in side it the mind. "This man shall under stand and know every thing, he shall be able to think for him self and make progress. Man shall have a spirit that shines out of its eyes and only when his eyes be come dull and colour less will the spirit's flame be truly extinguished.

And so the first human was created. Then a woman joined him and they started off every thing for the future.


	5. chapter 4

Jack stood over the gravestone, fighting not to cry. He read the message carved on the rough marble over and over until he knew it off by heart.

HERE LIES

IANTO MEREDITH JONES

1983-2009

A DEARLY LOVED SON, BROTHER, UNCLE AND PARTNER WHO WAS TAKEN BEFORE HIS TIME

R.I.P

Shit, he had promised himself that he wasn't going to cry. He bent down and brushed away a cobweb that was partially covering the bottom left corner, Ianto couldn't be forgotten, he'd promised. "Hey Yan," The immortal ex con man whispered, voice cracking, "I haven't forgotten you." And he hadn't, he hadn't slept with anyone else in over a decade, "I know I never said it enough Yan but I love you. D'you remember how I came back from my time with the Doctor and I could hardly stand being touched by anyone else except for you; 'specially my wrists? You understood and tried your best to help me. You were such a brilliant boyfriend Ianto, you deserved someone much better, I'm sorry."

He could hardly see now, his eyes masked by a waterfall of salty tears that didn't seem likely to stop anytime in the foreseeable future. "I'll love you forever Yan." Jack promised in hushed tones. He had to get back to the safe house, or Gray would start to wonder where he was. Yet he just couldn't bring himself to leave this place. With a tiny noise that he pretended wasn't a sob, Jack thought about all of the times that the Welshman had been there for him.

FLASHBACK

He wished Ianto was here, the welsh man would have rubbed circles in his back and wiped down his face with a soft fluffy towel before pulling him up on to his feet and settling his exhausted body back on to the mattress; making sure to tuck the covers in so that he stayed nice and warm while he went to get some chamomile tea to help quell the ripples of nausea that still remained. Then would come snuggling and hugging until the tea had been finished off- Jack had always tried to get that particular stage done with in the quickest amount of time that Ianto would let him,

"'You have to drink slowly Jack or else you'll just throw up again and we don't want that, do we?'"

Because after a drink then there would be the time to cuddle, their bodies pressed so close together that it was almost impossible to tell where one stopped and the other began. And Ianto would whisper soothing welsh words in his ear until he fell asleep and if he woke up and he still felt bad the welsh man would somehow convince to stay in bed that day. He would listen as Ianto pottered round the flat for a while before coming back with a hot water bottle and a bucket and a drink and he would untangle the sheets and tuck him back in again and kiss his forehead because he would have to go in to work to provide Gwen with some much needed coffee but he would come back at lunch time and if it was going to be a quiet day Ianto might stay the rest of the day with him in bed and Jack would refuse to let go of him until he managed to fall asleep again because although he would never ever say it, just being held in Ianto's strong arms was enough to make him feel much better.

END OF FLASHBACK

He cast one last longing look towards his dead lover's grave before walking away, coat flapping behind him.

TW

"Where'd you go?" Gray asked as he trudged through the backdoor.

"Nowhere special," Jack shrugged, "you want some breakfast?"

"Might as well see what 21st century food is like," the younger replied, "also there's these things in a box in the cupboard and they're like little white pouches full of black sand. Should I chuck 'em?"

"Nah, they're teabags." The immortal told him, retrieving the box from the overhead cupboard and explaining to him how they worked.

TW

A few minuites later they were sitting at the table, Gray happily taking alternate bites of Frosties, jam on toast and Coco Pops. Jack simply stared miserably down at his cup of tea, lost in thought- it wasn't an awkward silence. Soon after, the younger man had finished his food and delved into the cupboards in search of some more. "I take it you like Frosties and Coco Pops then?" Jack observed him with a smirk.

"Sugar and chocolate with milk that tastes like sugar and chocolate, it's brilliant!" Gray said happily and if he were younger Jack would have had an incredibly hyperactive child on his hands. "You want some?"

"I'll pass thanks." The former time agent replied.

"Your loss." Gray shrugged; he spied what looked like another box of cereal hidden away at the back of the cupboard behind a pile of tins and quickly made a grab for it. He was disappointed to find that it was a cheap shop's own brand sort- it didn't even have proper sugar in it.

"If you're quite finished," came Jack's voice and he just knew that his elder brother was trying hard not to laugh, "Come and help me dry these plates."

"Do I have to?" Gray pouted.

"The quicker you do it then the quicker you can go home."

"You're coming as well," Gray told him as he came over to help dry the crockery, "why wouldn't you come too?"

"Let's just say that after the invasion things between me and mom were… tense," Jack shrugged, "and we didn't exactly part on the greatest of terms."

"Yeah but you found me again didn't you? She'll forgive you."

The ex con man couldn't bring himself to dash his younger sibling's hopes but he also couldn't bring himself to lie either so he just shrugged again and carried on with washing the dishes.

TW

Gray watched from his position in the corner of the garden as Jack locked the back door of the safe house and placed the key back in its place under the door mat. "You ready?" Jack asked him as he crunched across the dewy grass. The younger sibling nodded, hoping that he seemed more confident than he felt.

"I'm ready."

"Next stop: home." The immortal former time agent grinned. Another nod and this time a tentative smile- those words still hadn't sunk in properly. Gray couldn't help but cling on tightly to Jack's sleeve fearfully and his brother offered him a reassuring smile.

A flash of light and a weightless but somehow clunky feeling later and he heard sand crunching beneath his boots and the sound of the sea roared in his ears.


	6. chapter 5

Jack looked around at the place that they found themselves in and couldn't help the happiness that bloomed in his chest when he realised that for the first time in over 2000 years he was home. The smoke emitting from the chimney of one of the distant houses puffed out invitingly and the immortal glanced down at his vortex manipulator and found that yes, indeed, they has gotten the date right. A raggedy seagull with a red and black beak squawked overhead and Gray jumped in surprise and clung on tightly to his elder brother. "When did those things start living here?" he asked.

"They were animals previously held by the invaders on their ship for testing and just generally being cruel to but a few of them escaped." Jack explained, taking the younger's hand and leading him slowly across the sand.

"Where did all of the people go? On a day like today the beach used to seem like the entire colony was on it, now it's so… desolate."

"About just under half of the population moved off world or to the Belaro satellite after the invasion, they took their whole families with them. Those people that wouldn't or couldn't leave refused point blank to let their kids even go out by themselves but seeing as everyone here had to take extra jobs…" Jack trailed off, a further explanation was no longer needed.

"Blue?"

"Hmmm?"

"You're not leaving after you've made sure that me and mom are reunited."

"As if I would!" the immortal ex con man protested. At the sceptical look that Gray shot across at him he shrugged slightly and stared resolutely down at the floor. "She never forgave me for letting go of your hand Gray. She could hardly even look at me after that, she hates me."

"If I forgave you then she should too and technically I never blamed you in the first place and what's more you were never to blame so she's just being a typical girl and over reacting- so much for evolution. Also, you really have some low self-esteem issues."

"Been told that before." Jack smiled but it barely even made his lips twitch up let alone reach his eyes.

"Nah, she'll forgive you Blue," Gray insisted "she's going to have to if she wants to have her youngest son back in her life."

"I can't ask you to do that!" the immortal man said and even though his face was wrought with worry and concern his voice remained a depressed tone of complete and utter misery.

"You're not asking me," the younger Boeshane boy corrected, "I'm telling you what is going to happen is Mom doesn't forgive you, I repeat, even though there's nothing to forgive you for, but if it will make you happy then fine."

"Still…" Jack fretted and Gray rolled his eyes almost exactly like Ianto used to do and Jack felt his heart clench as he thought of just how much he missed the Welshman who looked so damn good in a suit.

They walked on, still hand in hand, in a comfortable silence until they stopped a few feet away from the front of the house. "She'll be round the back." Jack told Gray and the younger man started forwards only to notice that his brother clearly meant to stay exactly where he was and pulled him along behind.

~0~

Zaphira was just brushing the dirt off her knees from tending to the roses when she heard a movement from behind her and turned, thinking that her friend Datzi had forgotten that were meeting up tomorrow. Instead of seeing Datzi, the blonde-brown haired woman spotted two men, both who had bright blue eyes and brown hair. She took them both in for a second longer before her emerald eyes settled on the taller of the pair and her breath caught as she spotted something familiar amongst the sea of emotions in his eyes. "Blue?" she asked, so shocked that they could barely hear her, Zaphira looked at the other man and she felt like she was about to faint as realisation dawned on her, "Gray?" she managed to choke out.

"Hey Mom," the youngest member of the trio replied with a calm that belied the happiness that he felt within, "Long time no see hey?"

"But you were… the invasion…" Zaphira gasped, her brain struggling to accept what was happening.

"Blue saved me." Gray told her happily.

"Oh my holy mother," Zaphira sobbed before rushing forth and pulling her son into a fierce embrace, "my boy," she repeated over and over again, "My beautiful, brilliant boy. Oh mother I'm so sorry, so, so sorry." Gray started to cry as well and Zaphira pulled him in tight and rocked him like she had done when he was a child. She looked up at Jack and pulled him down as well and kissed them both on the top of their heads like she needed to affirm that she wasn't hallucinating. "My boys." She said thickly. Jack buried his head into her shoulder and breathed in her scent and thought that, just maybe, it'd all be ok.


	7. chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for those of you reading this sotry thankyou all so much! and i apologise for the irregular updates but my life is a bit hectic at the moment and also watch out for the next chapter as there is going to be a twist!

Zaphira approached her eldest son from behind where he was sitting on the edge of the cliff looking at the sun breaking. As she got closer she noticed with concern all of the little but loud things that had changed about the now (much) older man. The aura of despair that was coming off him in waves, how underneath his clothes he was so thin that she wondered how long it had been since he had eaten properly, the bags under his eyes that were practically black when he wasn't making sure that he was animated and lively; the crushing sea of emotions that roiled about in his baby blue orbs and her heart went out to her son who was going to have to live like this, most probably, forever.

~0~

Jack knew he couldn't stay in the house, as soon as the opportunity had first come up he had escaped to the cliff top. Zaphira had hugged them both for a long, long while before hurrying them into the house and sitting them down at the kitchen table and making them all a mug of tea. (Ianto had always thought that he had hated tea because it tasted disgusting but in reality he hated the reminder of home but now Ianto was gone and he couldn't even smell coffee without almost puking.) Then he and Gray had explained the best that they could, it had taken the woman a while to truly understand what being immortal meant for her eldest son but compared to some other people Jack had known, she'd handled it fairly well. There was only enough food in the kitchen for Zaphira alone so Jack had walked down to the man with his cart near the caves who sold fresh Biblio (think chips and fish fingers put together in rainbow colour) and they had all sat down at the table eating Biblio with their fingers- and Jack had been very careful not to wipe his fingers on his trousers because he was quite sure that Ianto would have turned in his grave- and drinking tea and watching the news-feed on the screen set into the wall just above the fridge. After they'd sat in the living room with the cartoons playing while Zaphira sewed and knitted; Gray had eventually dozed off and Jack picked him up and put him to bed in their old room before sneaking out to the cliff top. And there was no doubt in his mind that his mom was going to give him yet another hug and just generally be his mom again. So why did he still feel so empty? He had his family back and he was home, yet there was still a gaping black hole in his heart where something was missing and he knew without a shadow of a doubt that it was Ianto and wondered when, if, he would ever feel whole again.

Jack realised that Zaphira was staring at him still and he turned to her with a grin and a raised eyebrow that seemed to take a lot more effort than it should have done. "Breaking curfew am I?" he asked in what he hoped seemed like a cheerful tone. She looked at him with unreadable eyes before pulling him into a fierce hug that felt like she was trying to break his ribs and he didn't mind.

"I was such a mekrittu," she said shakily, "always acting like I blamed you for what happened."

"Mom," Jack soothed, "it doesn't matter."

"Yes it does!" she told him, close to tears, "You were 13 Blue! 13 years old and you let your mom blame you for tearing the family apart."

"Sshh," the immortal ex time agent told her, "it wasn't like that Mom, I blamed myself even more than I thought you blamed me and Gray is home safe now so no dwelling on what can't be changed, ok? It wasn't your fault, it wasn't Dad's fault, and it was nobody's fault."

"Still," Zaphira murmured, "and now you're immortal! How in the name of everything that is sacred did that happen then?"

"There was a girl, we were both travelling with this man who was called the Doctor, but there was a battle on a place called Satellite Five. I was killed but Rose looked into something very powerful and absorbed the power and it gave her a way to look over all of time and space and she brought me back. But she was only a 19 year old human, she couldn't control it and she accidentally brought me back for good."

"How old are you now?" the elderly woman queried. He told her exactly how old and her mouth dropped, "But how..?" she whispered reverently, "You don't look a day older than the day that I last saw you."

"One benefit is that I age about a day for every 100 years that I live." Jack explained, keeping a close eye on making sure that she wasn't about to faint in shock anytime soon.

"So you have to see all of the people that you love die and some even turn against you and get bitter for not aging?" Zaphira said, "How are you still sane Blue?"

"You get used to it," Jack confessed, "and the special ones that I allow myself to truly love then nine times out of ten they die before they can even get near the bitter and twisted stage."

"I love you Blue," Zaphira told him fiercely, "after the invasion I should have told you that every single day, I'm sorry."

"It's ok." Jack promised her, and for once he thinks that he might have convinced himself as well.


	8. chapter seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tissue warning and may be potentially triggering, you've been warned

They hadn't even been there a day and yet there was still trouble, sometimes Jack really wondered if it was the universe's personal mission to make his life as shit as possible. They had been having a nice breakfast, Gray was happily making his way through his second bowl of Sorelki (he was still just as messy and just as much of a pig as he had been as a child) when a scream ripped through the peaceful air followed by a noise that Jack was unfortunately familiar enough with to know was a vortex manipulator burning out. And there was only one person that he was close to and knew where he had grown up and had a vortex manipulator several years past its guarantee. Yep, you guessed it: Captain John Hart. The why ceased to matter as the immortal man raced out of the house and down the gravel path to where the sound had come from, Gray and Zaphira following closely behind.

Zaphira stumbled clumsily after Jack and gasped, hands flying to her mouth. "Oh my God." Gray said as he came to a stop beside her.

"What happened?!" Jack demanded as he gently cradled the limp figure lying on the sand. The blonde time agent gave him a wily grin and a trickle of blood leaked from the corner of his mouth.

"Hey honey." He wheezed in a voice that was so weak that Jack struggled to hear it less than a foot away.

"What happened?!" Jack repeated desperately.

"Got hit with a Falarope gun, must have been faulty though 'cuz usually those things will kill you instantly. Knew I should have followed your lead and quit the con game." Jack blanched as his mind registered what his friend had told him. Falarope guns were notorious throughout the universe for transporting your insides to another planet away from your outsides then back again in a matter of seconds, the trauma was the thing that killed you.

"Why didn't you transport to a hospital?!" the immortal man asked him, "Damnit, John, you're as good as dead now! Why here?!" he vaguely noticed tears running down his cheeks and ignored them, focusing all of his attention on his dying partner.

"Heard just before I left earth that you planned on coming back here," John told him through laboured breaths, "wanted to see if it was as nice as you made it out to be."

"You idiot," Jack told him bluntly, "God, John, I'm sorry, you're going to die and it's going to hurt like fuck."

"I know," he nodded "just… make sure you drop in and visit sometime ok?"

"I will, I promise," the elder swore. John glanced over at the other two who had been silent for the whole duration of their talk.

"Alright… Gray? Told you your hair was…better like… that. Saw a photo… of you Mrs… Zaphira, just… to let you know… you're still a nice bit of eye candy."

"Thank you." Zaphira told him sincerely, tears cascading freely down her face. When will all the death end? She pleaded inside her head desperately, please if there's someone, anyone, out there, just make it all end. John locked eyes with Jack and his mouth twitched upwards into one last smile.

"You were always… my favourite partner Boe." He gasped.

"I'm sorry." Jack whispered tearfully.

"It's ok," John promised him just before his whole body spasmed in pain, "now, to use an old…cliché," he wheezed between waves of pain, "I love you." He closed his eyes and shuddered a little and then the only movement he made was because Jack was rocking back and forth on his heels with the deceased form of possibly his best friend clutched tight in his arms almost like a rag doll.

~0~

Gray watched as Jack carefully arranged the planks of wood around the sheet-wrapped body then lit the funeral pyre alight and took a step back. "Did you love him?" Gray asked his elder brother after the silence just became too much for him to bear.

"Not like I used to, 150 years will change a person." Came the dismal reply.

"So how did you love him?" he honestly didn't want to be rude or anything but he was confused, relationships were complicated enough for him already without factoring in an immortal or psychotic con-man.

"I don't really know," Jack admitted, "it wasn't like I used to when we were at the agency, I matured, but it was a bit more than just the normal love you have for your family. Does that make sense?" he asked as he looked across at him, the fire casting shadows on his face and making him look more older than ever.

"Why did he keep coming back to you though? If he loved you as much as he told me that he did then why didn't he just leave and love you enough to let you be happy?" Gray queried, painfully aware that his wording was shit.

"A year or so before the time agency wiped my memories," The immortal blue-eyed brunette started, "me and John were practically inseparable. There was a mission, can't remember the exact details but we have to go to a planet and blend in for a while and we got caught in a time loop. Not the 2 weeks/5 years one, a 1 year/4 year one instead but we needed a way of passing the time and of course knowing us it was mostly sex. One day though we found out I was pregnant because Boeshane men are capable of getting pregnant if they're in an all-male relationship and four months later we had a little girl because male pregnancies only last five months. We called her Mary-Lace, we didn't know if when time went back she would disappear so we made the most of our time together. But John, he could never do domestic so he would be out most of the day and rarely come home and kids at that age are exhausting. One day a couple of months after she had learned to walk I'd been up almost an entire week and I fell asleep on the sofa and there was no one to watch Mary Lace, one of us must have left the door unlocked because she toddled out into the middle of a busy street…"

"Oh my God," Gray blanched, a sick feeling rising up in his throat, "that's…"

"I know," Jack nodded sadly, "I know."

"I'm gonna go… help Mom." The younger stuttered before almost running back up the cliff, leaving Jack alone with his memories and the burning body of his friend.


	9. chapter 8

VWORP! VWORP! The sound of the Tardis' engines echoed around the mostly deserted area and Jack hurried outside with Zaphira and Gray following behind, all of them feeling a sense of déjà vu as they remembered the events that happened just a couple of days ago.

"What in the name of the Goddess is that thing?" Zaphira asked as she spotted a small wooden blue box with yellow windows, "And what are those scribble things all over it?" she was, of course, referring to the writing on the signs as the English language had become much like Latin today some 300 years earlier.

"It's the Tardis," Jack replied, looking the happiest he had done since Ianto had died, "and one of the most amazing people in the universe travels in it."

The door opened with its usual squeak and out popped a tall lanky man in a suit with a bow tie and a mop of messy brown hair. "Doctor," Jack questioned, "did you regenerate?"

"Yep!" the time lord replied cheerfully, "What do you think of the bow tie? I wear a bow tie now, bow ties are cool."

Gray tapped Jack on the shoulder and the elder turned to look at him, "You said he was possibly the cleverest man ever and yet he thinks bow ties are cool." He said bluntly and Jack laughed.

"Oi! I'll have you know, bow ties are very cool!" the Doctor protested, "and Jack, I have a gift for you. Come inside, bring those two and all."

Jack beckoned his reluctant relatives and chuckled slightly as they exclaimed at the inside that was at odds with the outside. A woman with frizzy blonde hair was standing at the console and grinned when she saw Jack. "Jack, meet my wife, River Song."

"You got married then?"

"Yep! Isn't she great?"

"Hold on, she lets you out dressed like that?!"

River let out a weary sigh, "If I protest he goes into such a strop sweetie, you know?"

"I know," Jack told her, "I was travelling with his previous regeneration just recently and the other companion, Martha, suggested that he might 'have a change of routine' and 'wear something a little different' and he sulked in his room for two days!"

"This one sulked for a week minimum." River grinned.

"Yes, yes, now you've finished insulting me, Jack the Tardis will show you where to go while I show Gray and Zaphira around. And yes, I promise not to accidentally take us somewhere, now go."

~0~

Jack stopped at the door that the Tardis waved open, in here? He asked her telepathically and got a mental nod in return, thanks honey he told her gratefully.

He entered the room and then reeled back slightly, that smell, it couldn't be… "Ianto!" Jack shouted out happily as the Welshman he had loved and lost exited the bathroom and stayed in the doorway staring at him. "How…?" Jack asked. Ianto simply threw himself into the immortal man's arms and held him tight.

"Ianto, Ianto, Ianto" Jack whispered as he clung back just as tight with a desperate need, over 10 years, slept with no one since, locked up his heart and saved it for a Welshman who wore suits.

"I'm back," Ianto whispered softly, pressing a kiss to his neck, "I'm back I promise."

"How though? The Doctor said no one could come back from the dead so why did he do it?"

"He said something about… nanomemes? Something about denim trousers or what have you, I just woke up here and he told me that I'd been dead for a couple of hours but for you it was over a decade and that he was taking me home. God, Jack I love you so much."

"I love you," Jack told him, mind racing as he processed what Ianto had told him, nanomemes, and denim trousers… nanogenes! Jack remembered world war two at the heart of the blitz and a man with a northern accent that wore a leather jacket and a girl in a union jack shirt and a soldier called Algy who had found a place in Jack's heart and was turned into a zombie… "I know what he did," Jack told Ianto, burying his nose into the soft hair, "and he is brilliant."

"I know," Ianto breathed, "And so are you. I love you so much cariad."

"I love you too." Jack breathed softly, "I'm going to tell you that every day, every wonderful, brilliant day we have together I'm going to tell you I love you Ianto Jones."

"I already knew." Ianto smiled softly and pulled the elder man down into a kiss.

THE END!


End file.
